cover image Soft Foods for Easier Eating Cookbook: Easy-To-Follow Recipes for People Who Have Chewing and Swallowing Problems

Soft Foods for Easier Eating Cookbook: Easy-To-Follow Recipes for People Who Have Chewing and Swallowing Problems

Sandra Woodruff, Leah Gilbert-Henderson. Square One Publishers, $18.95 (309pp) ISBN 978-0-7570-0290-8

When patients have difficulty eating due to illness, surgery, an injury or medical treatments like chemotherapy, they're often advised (or forced) to alter their diets. Those patients are likely to welcome this primer and recipe collection from dieticians Woodruff (an RD) and Leah Gilbert-Henderson (a PhD). Gilbert-Henderson didn't just talk the talk, but committed herself to months on a pureed diet, informing her work with valuable perspective on the difficulty and monotony of a soft-foods diet. Since restrictions vary from patient to patient, the authors approach the subject with multiple needs and appetites in mind. Recipes range from the expected (smoothies, custards, scrambled eggs) to more involved, flavorful fare like Baked French Toast, Sweet Potato Soup with Cilantro Pesto, and Burgers with Barbecue Sauce. In addition to simple instructions, each recipe offers nutritional information and ways to increase or decrease calories and to remix dependable standbys. Packed with tips and tricks from those who've been there, this is a vital work that opens a vista of flavors to those whose options are severely limited.